I highly doubt that he's Croatian (they use the word Serb far to often in the intro for him to be a Croatian), but he could be either Serbian or Bosnian (a Bosnian Serb that is, doubt he's a Muslim or a Catholic).

And they speak Yugoslavian (or Serbian or Bosnian or Croatian, depending where you are from ) and not Russian or Polish.

It would also fit a stereotype well for many if the would use an "evil" Serbian.

I've just started playing and it's very clear that Niko is Serbian.
1.Nikola Belic - pure Serbian first name and last name (it would be Bijelic or Bjelic if it is from Croatia, Bosnia or Montenegro)
2.Niko and his cousin at the beginning mention that they hate albanians, which are current serbian sworn enemies for taking Kosovo out Serbia.
3.Niko mentions that he was in a war few years ago - the only war on that territory in last few years was on Kosovo between serbs and albanians
3.In very short time i've heard a bunch of serbian senteces from him:
"Zdravo burazeru" - at the beginning of the game, meaning "Hi bro"
During small car accidents you can hear Niko often saying:
"Ti si imbecil" - "You are an imbecile"
"Ti si djoka" - "You are a dick" (rarely used in serbian language with that particular word, but that IS a literal translation...someone has been using a dictionary instead of hiring additional staff
"Moronu" - "Moron"

The problem is a very lame interpretation and ridiculous accents - cause even completely serbian sentences doesn't sound serbian at all (more like russian or something)...they probably spared some money hiring a few general eastern europeans to deal everything...for god sake, at least for your main character you could've found serbs willing to help for free

Issue with Bellic instead of Belic is also just a pure rockstar mistake
- there is no eastern european lastname with double L
- all eastern european lastnames that ends with "ic" are pronounced "ich", so no serb, croat, bosnian, russian, bulgarian or anyone similar would've pronounced it "Belick" (like they do in the game), but "Belich"

...thats about it for now and i'm sure i'll see a lot more serb stuff and a lot of just wrong stuff by the end of the game.
However, I doubt that Rockstar will ever announce Niko's nationality since they probably already know that they did a very bad job, so they might just say that they wanted it to be a mistery or somethin...

Anyone who pays attention to the first cutscene in the game will immediately know that he is Serbian. Roman says, "better than my Serbian", which implies him and Niko are Serbians. As for where he comes from (his nationality), we're not so sure, but his ethnicity is definite - he's Serbian.

Quote:

Originally Posted by x3mer

I've just started playing and it's very clear that Niko is Serbian.
The problem is a very lame interpretation and ridiculous accents - cause even completely serbian sentences doesn't sound serbian at all (more like russian or something)...they probably spared some money hiring a few general eastern europeans to deal everything...for god sake, at least for your main character you could've found serbs willing to help for free

Issue with Bellic instead of Belic is also just a pure rockstar mistake
- there is no eastern european lastname with double L
- all eastern european lastnames that ends with "ic" are pronounced "ich", so no serb, croat, bosnian, russian, bulgarian or anyone similar would've pronounced it "Belick" (like they do in the game), but "Belich"

...thats about it for now and i'm sure i'll see a lot more serb stuff and a lot of just wrong stuff by the end of the game.
However, I doubt that Rockstar will ever announce Niko's nationality since they probably already know that they did a very bad job, so they might just say that they wanted it to be a mistery or somethin...

Cheers.

It is not a lame intepretation at all. They did it on purpose. In the game, Dimitri sort of pronounces it as "Belich" (he is Russian), and they all pronounce Florian Cravic and Darko Brevic correctly. It's just done on purpose.

Well you're right 'cause he is Serbian. I read on some page there sais that Niko was born in Croatia, my country but he's actually Serbian. He fought for Serbians in the war between Croatians so that makes him a Serbian.

There is another "westernized" name pronunciation in the game, too.. I doubt any Russian (Vlad) or Serbian (Niko) would pronounce the name Ivan as "aye-vin" rather than "ee-von." I don't think Rockstar was stupid enough to miss the fact that it would be pronounced "Belich" though, I'm sure they have their reasons for keeping it as "Belick."

Also as for the accent, you need to give the guy a break. Niko is voiced by Michael Hollick, an American who I believe is from the east coast. He pulled off the accent pretty well, and although his Serbian lines sound a little forced, it's not really that bad.

Exactly. And why bring this topic up again? We've known he was a Serb from back when the game was out and the topic was resolved. x3mer, friend, I appreciate you going into details (which I already know), but it's fairly obvious when you start the game where Niko is from. As the topic starter, I would ask if you would let this topic die. I mean, all the details have been discussed. The situation in which Rockstar was is to make the game more Americanized, it was not made specifically for us from Balkan area. It was made like this so a typical American can understand everything. I mean, it is sad for me to hear such funny Serbian language, but coming from an American, he pulled it off good. Gotta give credits to Rockstar for diversifying the main characters. It's all cool that way.

He is from former Yugoslavia. His mothers name Milica is usual Serbian female name. The language spoken in game is Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian - they are all the same languages, just with different dialect (etc. English - UK and Australian english).

In Bosnia, there are about 45% of bosniaks (muslims), 35% of serbs(orthodox) and 20% croatians (catholics), so it could be very likely that Niko is Bosnian Serb.

It's known that he was in war which gets him Bosnian Serb even more likely. Voice acting of serbian (or bosnian, croatian) is terrible. I know this, because I'm from Bosnia. You can barely understand what's he saying, I heard him saying something like "You are a shithead" - "Ti si seronja" and guess what, it was terrible.

So Niko is definitely a Serb. 60 % that he's bosnian Serb, 30% that he is regular Serb (from Serbia, ofcourse) and 10% he's croatian Serb (Sava river region).

He is from former Yugoslavia. His mothers name Milica is usual Serbian female name. The language spoken in game is Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian - they are all the same languages, just with different dialect (etc. English - UK and Australian english).

In Bosnia, there are about 45% of bosniaks (muslims), 35% of serbs(orthodox) and 20% croatians (catholics), so it could be very likely that Niko is Bosnian Serb.

It's known that he was in war which gets him Bosnian Serb even more likely. Voice acting of serbian (or bosnian, croatian) is terrible. I know this, because I'm from Bosnia. You can barely understand what's he saying, I heard him saying something like "You are a shithead" - "Ti si seronja" and guess what, it was terrible.

So Niko is definitely a Serb. 60 % that he's bosnian Serb, 30% that he is regular Serb (from Serbia, ofcourse) and 10% he's croatian Serb (Sava river region).

I know I should let the discussion go, but there was a site which had his biography posted from R* or something. It said his father was Serbian and mother Croatian. Lets not go into Milica as a Serbian name, because it isn't just a Serbian name. I have a friend named Milan and although that's a common Serbian name, he's a Croat.